Cheyne's face grew stern. "I am to understand that you did not warn the engineer or any of the railroad men?" "No," said Allonby, with evident embarrassment. "We didn't. It was necessary to make the thing as ugly for Larry's friends as we could, and we knew you would be at the bridge. If you had caught them in the act, with the train not far away, it would have looked ever so much better for us--and you." He stopped, with an unpleasant feeling that he had blundered. Cheyne's face had become grimmer. Miss Schuyler's lips were curled in a little scornful smile, and there was a curious sparkle in Hetty's eyes. "I wonder if you quite recognize the depth of Mr. Grant's iniquity yet?" Flora Schuyler asked. Cheyne smiled. "I confess I should very much like to meet the man. You see, my profession prevents my being a partisan, and the cleverness and daring of what he has evidently done appeals to me. He took the chances of his own men turning on him to save them from an affray with us, brought them off, and sent your cattle-train through; and what, it seems to me, was more than all, disregarded the probability of his enemies associating him with the contriving of the outrage." "Wouldn't you have done that?" asked Miss Allonby. "No," said the soldier quietly. "I don't think I should. A man who would do what this one has done would be very likely to take a hand in that kind of thing." Again there was an almost embarrassing silence broken by Miss Allonby. "I wonder who could have told him." Nobody spoke until Cheyne felt it advisable to break the silence. "You have no sympathy with Grant, Miss Allonby?" "No," said the girl plaintively. "I don't go quite as far as Mr. Clavering and my cousin do--though Chris generally talks too much--but Larry is a nuisance, and really ought to be crushed. You see, we had everything we wanted before he and the others made the trouble here." "That is quite convincing," Cheyne said, with somewhat suspicious gravity. He looked at the others, and fancied that Hetty would have answered but that Flora Schuyler flashed a warning glance at her. "One could almost fancy that most of us have too much now," she said. "Are we better, braver, stronger, or of choicer stuff than those others who have nothing, and only want the little the law would give them? Oh, yes, we are accomplished--very indifferently, some of us--and have been better taught, though one sometimes wonders at the use we make of it; but was that education given us for our virtues, or thrust upon us by the accident that our fathers happened to be rich?" "You will scarcely approve, Miss Allonby?" said Cheyne. The girl's lips curled scornfully. "I never argue with people who talk like that. It would not be any use--and they would never understand me; but everybody knows we were born different from the rabble. It is unfortunate you and Larry couldn't go up and down the country together, convincing people, Flo."